PR 

4156 

S34 

1916 

MAIN 


GIFT  OF 


GEORGE  BORROW:    AN  ENGLISH 
HUMORIST  IN  SPAIN 


RUDOLPH  SCHEVILL 


[Reprint  from  the  UNIVERSITY  OP  CALIFORNIA  CHRONICLE,  Vol.  XVIII,  No.  1] 


'-03 
M/ 


GEOEGE  BORROW:    AN  ENGLISH  HUMORIST 
IN    SPAIN 


RUDOLPH  SCHEVILL 


Seventy-five  years  ago  two  Englishmen  travelled  over 
the  length  and  breadth  of  the  Spanish  Peninsula  on  widely 
different  missions.  One  was  Richard  Ford,  who  was  en- 
gaged in  compiling  a  handbook  on  Spain  for  John  Murray, 
the  well  known  London  publisher;  the  other  was  George 
Borrow,  who  had  undertaken  the  sale  of  Spanish  Testa- 
ments in  order  to  spread  the  Word  of  the  Gospel  on  behalf 
of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society. 

The  results  as  published  by  both  travellers  seem 
destined  to  endure:  Ford's  Handbook  is  still  the  authorita- 
tive and  most  readable  introduction  to  the  conditions  in 
Spain  during  the  thirties  of  the  last  century;  Borrow 's 
The  Bible  in  Spain,  a  most  brilliant  and  melodramatic  mix- 
ture of  truth  and  buncombe,  has  continued  to  appear  in 
edition  after  edition  for  reasons  not  far  to  seek.  The 
English  reading  public  has  not  only  been  content  to  see 
Anglo-Saxon  superiority  once  more  dramatically  and  irrefut- 
ably demonstrated,  but  it  continues  to  welcome  a  book  which 
seems  to  justify  our  traditional  indifference  to  the  subject 
treated,  namely,  poor  backward  Spain  and  the  benighted 
Spanish  people. 

The  characters  of  Ford  and  Borrow  could  not  have  been 
more  diametrically  opposed. 

Ford  was  a  most  modest  gentleman,  a  thorough  scholar, 
an  ideal  traveller  because  he  was  a  respector  of  other 

327574 


people 's  opinions ;  of  a  retiring  disposition  he  was  especially 
given  to  observe,  and  record  his  impressions.  He  jotted 
down,  among  other  things,  an  infinite  number  of  homely, 
terse  Spanish  sayings  which  he  quite  invariably  translated 
for  the  benefit  of  his  British  public,  and  he  illustrated  the 
great  age  of  many  a  custom  by  striking  references  to  the 
Greek  and  Latin  classics.  The  latter,  however,  he  does  not 
render  in  English,  for  he  could  assume  in  his  day  and 
generation  that  none  of  his  readers  needed  a  translation, 
while  in  this  iron  age  there  are  only  a  few  of  us  left  who 
can  almost  decipher  their  meaning.  Ford,  too,  had  a  delight- 
ful sense  of  humor,  not  unlike  that  of  tjie  Spaniards,  which 
makes  all  racial  barriers  less  formidable  to  any  stranger 
dwelling  among  them.  Moreover,  seeing  things  as  they  were 
he  was  not  inclined  to  take  windmills  for  giants,  nor  every 
repellent  exterior  as  the  indication  of  a  bloodthirsty  heart. 
He  says  at  the  beginning  of  his  guide-book:  "Of  the  many 
misrepresentations  regarding  Spain,  few  have  been  more 
systematically  circulated  than  the  dangers  and  difficulties 
which  are  there  supposed  to  beset  the  traveller. ' '  We  shall 
see  how  the  agent  of  the  Bible  Society  was  one  of  those  who 
indulged  in  many  misrepresentations. 

Borrow,  on  the  other  hand,  had  received  only  an  un- 
systematic, home-made  education ;  by  temperament  fearless 
and  impulsive,  he  could  undertake  nothing  gently,  nor  did 
he  comprehend  why  the  Lord  who  would  naturally  support 
the  efforts  of  the  British  Bible  Society  did  not  furnish  him 
with  the  necessary  clap  of  thunder  whenever  he  himself 
entered  on  the  scene.  He  took  to  noisy  advertising  at  first, 
then  to  remonstrance,  then,  as  his  schemes  met  with  opposi- 
tion, to  scolding  and  vituperation.  He  was  like  a  character 
out  of  an  opera  bouffe,  inclined  to  pose  and  fond  of  being 
conspicuous.  He  never  made  one  of  a  friendly  group.  A 
' '  perambulating  polyglot, ' '  who  boasted  that  he  could  speak 
and  write  some  thirty  tongues,  he  was  always  ready  to  show 
his  skill.  Although  he  is  one  of  the  most  brilliant  letter- 
writers  in  the  English  language  when  summarizing  his 


experiences,  he  lapses  into  verbiage  or  evangelical  cant  when 
he  philosophizes  or  reflects.  He  had  come  into  Spain  with 
one  object,  that  of  scattering  Testaments,  and  one  pre-con- 
ceived  notion,  that  Spain  was  the  most  heathenish  place  in  " 
Christendom.  He  did  manage  to  scatter  several  thousands  of 
Testaments,  but  he  performed  an  even  greater  miracle,  that 
of  leaving  Spain  after  a  sojourn  of  several  years  with  pre- 
cisely the  same  prejudices  and  unfounded  opinions  which 
he  had  entertained  before  setting  foot  on  Spanish  soil. 
Being  a  solitary  individual  he  suffered  from  quickly  chang- 
ing moods,  and  his  observations  are  therefore  frequently  so 
highly  colored  as  to.  be  wholly  untrustworthy.  Nothing  is 
more  amusing  in  his  career  than  his  impatience  with  the 
ungrateful  authorities  who  did  not  appreciate  his  mission 
of  light,  but  took  him  for  an  impertinent  intruder  and 
thrust  him  into  vile  Spanish  dungeons  without  any  reason 
whatever.  For  was  he  not  justified  in  interrupting  the 
Spaniard's  traditional  siesta  to  sell  him  a  Testament  and 
a  tract  on  British  religious  enlightenment? 

One  of  the  fine  and  really  attractive  qualities  of  the 
average  Spaniard  is  his  conservatism :  he  finds  certain  feat- 
ures of  his  life  as  endurable  and  proper  as  they  were  two 
thousand  years  ago,  perhaps  because  they  were  endurable 
and  proper  that  long  ago.  Much  that  is  implied  in  the 
unpoetic  word  innovation  has  remained  a  sealed  book  to 
him.  Speed  has  been  contrary  to  his  native  dignity,  and 
he  has  never  appreciated  the  advantage  of  travelling  faster 
to  places  to  which  he  does  not  care  to  go.  Just  so  his 
provincial  customs,  his  altar  and  his  hearth  have  been  dear 
to  him.  He  has  developed  a  homely  and  sound  philosophy 
in  the  midst  of  humble  conditions;  he  has  accumulated  an 
inexhaustible  fund  of  humor  with  which  to  illustrate  this 
most  imperfect  scheme  of  life;  he  has  become  convinced 
that  the  universal  hardships  of  all  existence,  intensified  by 
the  hot  Spanish  sun,  justify  protracted  repose  and  deliber- 
ate procedure  in  daily  routine.  He  has  also  realized  that 
the  less  we  move  about  the  less  we  see  of  foolish  people. 


All  of  this  is  what  Borrow  never  grasped.  Moreover,  the 
Spaniard  is  an  inveterate  smoker,  and  Borrow  hated  tobacco. 
The  idiomatic  flavor  of  the  Spanish  language  had  no  interest 
for  him  apart  from  its  linguistic  traits.  Indeed,  at  times 
the  reader  is  inclined  to  believe  that  Borrow  was  either  ig- 
norant of  the  English  equivalents  of  certain  Spanish  words 
or  that  he  wrote  nonsense  on  purpose.  Thus  he  invariably 
translates  caballero,  ' cavalier/  or  'sir  cavalier,'  when  he 
must  have  known  after  years  of  experience  that  it  either 
means  'man*  or  that  it  is  the  ordinary  way  of  accosting 
any  man,  as  for  example,  "Dispense  usted,  caballero"  which 
simply  means,  "I  beg  your  pardon,  sir."  *  listed'  he  trans- 
lates 'your  worship'  when  it  would  never  occur  to  anyone 
to  say  to  a  waiter,  for  example,  "Will  your  worship  bring 
me  another  glass?"  Here,  for  example,  is  a  piece  of  bonne 
Hague  which  Borrow  sets  down  as  the  usual  Spanish  man- 
ner of  speech.  He  is  addressing  a  simple  soldier:  "I  dis- 
mounted, and  taking  off  my  hat,  made  a  low  bow  to  the 
constitutional  soldier,  saying,  'Senor  Nacional,  you  must 
know  that  I  am  an  English  gentleman  travelling  in  this 
country  for  my  pleasure.  I  bear  a  passport,  which  on 
inspecting  you  will  find  to  be  perfectly  regular.  It  was 
given  to  me  by  the  great  Lord  Palmerston,  Minister  of 
England,  whom  you  of  course  have  heard  of  here.  At  the 
bottom  you  will  see  his  own  handwriting.  Look  at  it  and 
rejoice;  perhaps  you  will  never  have  another  opportunity. 
As  I  put  unbounded  confidence  in  the  honor  of  every  gentle- 
man, I  leave  the  passport  in  your  hands  whilst  I  repair  to 
the  posada  to  refresh  myself.  When  you  have  inspected  it, 
you  will  perhaps  oblige  me  so  far  as  to  bring  it  to  me. 
Cavalier,  I  kiss  your  hands.'  ' 

The  intricate  characteristics  of  the  Spanish  people,  their 
immemorial  traditions,  their  vast  literature,  their  art,  the 
moulding  facts  of  their  history  are  never  referred  to  by 
Borrow,  and  unquestionably  never  interested  him.  Above 
all  his  idea  of  humor  was  certainly  not  that  of  the  Spanish 
people,  nor  of  the  genial  Ford.  He  has,  to  be  sure,  presented 


the  most  ridiculous  situations  in  a  striking  way,  but  you 
do  not  feel  sure  that  he  is  laughing  over  them.  Men  like 
Borrow  seldom  find  a  congenial  companion,  and  he  therefore 
had  no  one  either  to  laugh  with  him,  or  to  prevent  him 
from  making  himself  ridiculous.  The  most  unusual  events 
strike  him  as  extraordinary  rather  than  amusing.  He  had 
come  to  Spain  with  a  single  object,  and  it  aroused  his 
resentment  to  find  himself  hampered  by  an  ignorant  people 
in  carrying  out  his  ostentatiously  philanthropic  plans. 
Borrow  was  thus  the  last  man  in  England  to  understand 
the  Peninsular  character  on  which  the  sun,  Oriental  tradi- 
tions and  the  Roman  Catholic  Church — among  other  un- 
English  influences — had  placed  a  unique  stamp. 

The  recent  issue  of  Borrow 's  letters  to  the  Bible  Society, 
which  had  been  thought  lost,  suggests  an  entirely  new  point 
of  view  of  the  man  and  allows  us  to  add  a  few  traits  to 
the  portrait  of  this  brilliant  vagrant,  whose  book,  The  Bible 
in  Spain,  has  for  decades  so  delightfully  entertained  and 
fooled  an  infinite  number  of  readers.  '  Only  a  relatively 
small  portion  of  that  book  is  taken  directly  from  these  com- 
munications sent  to  the  Society;  and  they  assuredly  have 
more  value  than  his  book  because  they  gave  his  impressions 
before  he  had  time  to  doctor  them.  Wherever  the  original' 
has  been  furbished  up,  the  revised  version  is  apt  to  be  top- 
heavy  with  the  ego  of  the  author,  consequently  his  additions 
present  far  more  of  Borrow  than  they  do  of  Spaing  But 
let  us  accompany  him  through  his  wanderings  and  note  his 
own  first  comments.  Where  it  is  possible  we  shall  let  him 
speak  for  himself. 

Sorrow's  orders  on  leaving  England  appear  to  have 
been  very  simple:  Whosoever  will  take  away  the  New 
Testament  let  him  have  the  Old  also,  and  add  thereto  a 
few  tracts.  His  entrance  into  the  Peninsula  was  bound  to 
be  melodramatic.  He  wrote  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Society 
that  before  beginning  his  campaign  in  Portugal  where  he 
landed,  he  made  inquiries  as  to  ''which  was  the  province  of 
that  country  the  population  of  which  was  considered  the 


8 

most  ignorant  and  benighted. ' '  Having  learned  that  it  was 
the  Alemtejo  he  at  once  determined  on  going  thither  with  a 
small  cargo  of  Testaments  and  Bibles.  "My  reasons  I  need 
not  state,  as  they  must  be  manifest  to  every  Christian ;  but 
I  cannot  help  thinking  that  it  was  the  Lord  who  inspired 
me  with  the  idea  of  going  thither,  as  by  so  doing  I  have 
introduced  the  Scriptures  into  the  worst  part  of  the  Penin- 
sula, and  have  acquired  lights  and  formed  connections  (some 
of  the  latter  most  singular  ones,  I  admit)  which  if  turned 
to  proper  account  will  wonderfully  assist  us  in  our  object 
of  making  the  heathen  of  Portugal  and  Spain  acquainted 
with  God's  Holy  Word."  He  now  hired  a  wild-looking 
lad  to  ferry  him  across  the  Tagus,  but  unfortunately  the 
lad  did  not  speak  any  of  Borrow 's  thirty  tongues,  for  "he 
gabbled  in  a  most  incoherent  manner"  with  a  "harsh  and 
rapid  articulation"  like  the  "scream  of  a  hyena  blended 
with  the  bark  of  a  terrier."  This  circumstance  coupled 
with  the  fact  that  a  storm  arose  and  that  the  lad  did  not 
know  much  about  sailing  made  it  apparent  that  it  was  only 
"the  will  of  the  Almighty  that  permitted  them  to  gain 
shelter  on  the  other  side."  The  guide  with  whom  Borrow 
now  proceeds  on  his  way  at  once  regaled  him  with  the 
"truly  horrible"  tales  of  the  atrocities  which  robbers  "were 
in  the  habit  of  practicing"  in  those  very  spots;  and  while 
the  mules  stopped  to  drink  at  a  shallow  pool,  Borrow 
reflects  that  the  gang  * '  were  in  the  habit  of  watering  their 
horses  at  the  pool  and  perhaps  of  washing  their  hands 
stained  with  the  blood  of  their  victims."  But  his  courage 
went  further;  he  climbed  up  to  the  place  where  once  stood 
the  home  of  the  banditti,  now  in  ruins,  and  found  there 
vestiges  of  a  fire  and  a  broken  bottle.  ' '  The  sons  of  plunder 
had  been  there  very  lately,"  so  he  took  the  opportunity 
to  leave  a  "New  Testament  and  some  tracts  among  the  ruins, 
and  hastened  away."  We  may  take  for  granted  the  speedy 
repentance  of  these  blood-thirsty  villains.  Continuing  his 
course  he  meets  some  wild-looking  men  who,  if  they  were 
not  banditti,  could  easily  have  been  mistaken  for  such. 


Nevertheless,  he  reached  Evora  safely,  the  center  of  the 
darkness  he  had  come  to  dispel,  and  at  once  determined  to 
lay  the  axe  to  the  root  of  all  superstition  and  tyranny  by 
finding  some  respectable  merchant  who  would  take  charge 
of  the  necessary  sale  of  his  cargo.  He  also  made  it  a  point 
to  speak  to  as  many  "bigoted  Romanists"  as  possible  on 
matters  connected  with  their  eternal  welfare,  "telling  them 
repeatedly  that  the  Pope  whom  they  revered  was  a  deceiver 
and  the  prime  minister  of  Satan  here  on  earth."  No  doubt 
the  words  which  he  uttered  sank  deep  into  the  hearts  of  his 
hearers,  for  we  are  told  they  departed  "musing  and  pen- 
sive. ' '  Borrow  may  have  been  a  trifle  optimistic.  There  are 
many  things  which  can  make  us  depart  musing  and  pensive. 
His  guide,  for  example,  when  asked  whether  his  master 
could  understand  the  language  of  the  people  replied  in  the 
affirmative,  but  added  that  he  probably  spoke  some  other 
language  better.  Again,  when  we  hear  our  most  revered 
institutions  decried  we  may  depart  musing  and  pensive  in 
search  of  a  half -brick.  Having  learned  too  of  some  of  the 
superstitions  of  the  peasantry,  notably  their  peculiar  beliefs 
in  witchcraft,  some  of  which  are  as  old  as  the  race,  he  char- 
acterizes them  as  "relics  of  the  monkish  system,"  the  aim 
of  which  had  been  merely  "to  besot  the  minds  of  the  peo- 
ple." It  was  therefore  evident  that  more  tracts  were 
needed  here.  So  he  rode  about  the  neighborhood,  "drop- 
ping a  great  many  in  the  favorite  walks  of  the  people," 
thinking  that  if  they  found  them  on  the  ground,  *  *  curiosity 
might  induce  them  to  pick  them  up  and  examine  them." 
Thus  we  find  the  most  benighted  people  in  Portugal,  who 
had  presumably  never  seen  a  printed  word  in  their  lives, 
alert  and  curious  enough  to  devour  the  tracts  of  the  British 
Bible  Society,  conveniently  dropped  in  their  favorite  walks. 
Of  the  sale  of  the  Testaments  we  hear  nothing  further,  for 
the  letter  concluding  his  sojourn  in  Portugal  was  evidently 
never  received,  and  we  next  find  Borrow  in  Madrid. 

Spanish  critics  have  asserted  that  the  British  Bible  Soci- v 
ety  took  advantage  of  the  turbulent  conditions  in  Spain  and  / 


10 

Portugal  at  this  time  to  sell  Testaments  because  its  agents 
could  escape  the  vigilance  of  the  authorities  occupied  as  they 
were  in  quelling  the  rebellion  against  the  central  government 
at  Madrid.  There  seems  to  be  some  justice  in  this  accusa- 
/  tion.  Nevertheless,  whatever  side  of  the  argument  we  choose 
to  take,  a  period  of  civil  war  was  not  the  time  to  introduce 
the  Gospel  to  the  people  of  Spain.  Such  wars  have  always 
assumed  with  them  a  unique  aspect;  politics  and  religion 
are  inseparably  linked  in  the  questions  at  issue.  A  man 
with  a  gun  is  apt  to  consider  himself  a  military  unit,  and 
while  he  is  waiting  behind  a  harmless-looking  hedge-row  with 
a  blunderbuss  in  order  to  impress  his  opinions  on  the  passer- 
by, it  might  seen  inadvisable  to  attempt  to  sell  him  a  New 
Testament.  In  the  face  of  these  conditions,  Borrow  wrote 
to  the  Secretary  of  the  Society:  "A.  little  patience  and  a 
little  prudence  is  all  that  is  required  to  win  the  game." 
His  first  object  was  necessarily  to  obtain  permission  to  print 
a  Spanish  translation  of  the  New  Testament,  but  without 
any  notes  or  comments.  Versions  in  this  bare  form  had 
been  prohibited  in  Spain  ever  since  the  beginning  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  and  only  unusual  conditions  or  extra- 
ordinary pressure  could  squeeze  the  coveted  licence  out  of 
the  authorities.  Borrow  first  visited  the  Prime  Minister,  at 
that  time  Mendizabal ;  but  the  atmosphere  around  that 
gentleman  reminded  him  of  the  temperature  at  the  North 
Pole,  and  he  found  himself  obliged  to  withdraw  with 
the  vague  promise  that  when  matters  in  the  Peninsula 
had  settled  down  a  little  the  Bible  Society  "would  be 
allowed  to  commence  operations."  His  request  had  other 
obstacles  to  contend  with.  Cabinets  were  shortlived  in  those 
days,  lasting  a  few  weeks,  or  at  the  most,  a  few  months; 
to  lay  a  plea  before  the  Prime  Minister  was  therefore  like 
negotiating  a  loan  with  a  man  through  the  car-window 
when  his  train  is  already  moving  out  of  the  station.  Nor 
would  the  promises  made  by  one  minister  necessarily  seem 
binding  to  his  successor. 


11 


In  the  meantime  an  article  had  appeared  in  a  Spanish 
paper,  explaining  to  the  whole  nation  "the  philosophic  and 
civilizing  mission ' '  of  the  agent  of  the  Bible  Society,  which, 
not  content  with  making  Great  Britain  the  sole  beneficiary 
of  this  salutary  institution  was  willing  "to  extend  it  to 
all  countries."  Such  generosity  must  have  appealed  to  all 
Spaniards — if  any  ever  read  the  article.  But  Borrow  had 
more  matter  to  communicate  which  would  afford  the  rev- 
erend committee  at  headquarters  "subject  for  some  con- 
gratulation." He  had  been  in  Madrid  less  than  three 
months,  but  had  discovered  that  the  authority  of  the  Pope 
in  Spain  was  "  in  so  very  feeble  and  precarious  a  situation ' ' 
that  "little  more  than  a  breath  is  required  to  destroy  it." 
Borrow  was  evidently  about  to  supply  the  necessary  breath, 
for  he  adds  "that  he  was  doing  whatever  he  could  in  Madrid 
to  prepare  the  way  for  an  event  so  desirable."  Moreover, 
if  the  Man  of  Rome  continued  in  his  subversive  course  he 
would  lose  Spain  and  then  "Ireland  will  alone  remain  to 
him — much  good  may  it  do  him ! "  If  Borrow  showed  him- 
self now  and  then  a  trifle  gullible,  his  Society  must  have 
been  equally  naive,  for  there  is  in  all  the  replies  of  its 
Secretary  but  little  evidence  that  the  members  ever  laughed 
in  committee  over  his  epistles.  But  as  he  took  himself 
seriously  at  all  times  it  is  little  wonder  that  the  philan- 
thropic gentlemen  at  the  London  end  of  things  should 
merely  express  themselves  as  deeply  interested  in  his 
proceedings.  The  Reverend  Secretary  Brandram,  however, 
admonishes  Borrow  "with  a  rap  on  the  knuckles"  that  it 
is  wiser  for  an  agent  of  the  Society  not ' '  in  vulgus  spargere 
voces :  verbum  sat  ....  Information  of  what  is  passing  we 
are  glad  to  receive,  but  do  not  mix  yourself  up  in  such 
matters."  In  his  next  letter  Borrow  therefore  contented 
himself  with  referring  to  the  Pope  merely  as  "a  certain 
personage,"  but  reiterated  his  opinion  that  "the  last  skirts 
of  the  cloud  of  papal  superstition  are  vanishing  below  the 
horizon  of  Spain." 


12 

Evidently  all  this  was  dictated  by  an  increase  in 
Borrow 's  optimism.  The  new  Ministers  seemed  favorable 
to  his  scheme  of  printing  the  Testaments;  it  was  merely  a 
question  of  getting  their  approval  as  long  as  the  Cabinet 
remained  in  existence.  This  Borrow  managed  to  do  with 
the  aid  of  the  British  Ambassador;  but  "since  many  of 
the  friends  of  the  Spanish  Ministers  were  bigoted  Papists" 
the  latter  stipulated  that  the  printing  should  be  done  in 
a  private  manner.  The  books  were  to  be  issued  secretly, 
the  matter  was  not  "to  be  noised  abroad,"  and  Borrow 
expressed  his  "perfect  readiness  to  comply  with  so  reason- 
able a  request. ' '  Much  time,  however,  was  destined  to  elapse 
before  further  progress  in  printing  could  be  made.  The 
government  went  through  various  changes,  a  riot  had  over- 
thrown the  Constitution,  and  Borrow  himself  made  a  flying 
trip  to  England  to  lay  his  plans  of  campaign  before  the 
Committee  of  his  Society.  The  report  of  his  proceedings 
in  Spain  is  one  of  the  most  characteristic  things  he  ever 
penned  and  betrays  the  exaggerated  rhetorical  qualities  of 
his  mind  and  style.  In  his  attempts  at  formal  writing  of 
an  evangelical  character  he  was  apt  to  launch  himself  upon 
such  figures  as  the  following :  "  No  time  ought  to  be  lost  in 
supplying  those  with  the  Word  who  are  capable  of  receiving 
it;  ...  Though  the  days  of  the  general  orange-gathering 
are  not  arrived  when  the  tree  requires  but  a  slight  shaking 
to  scatter  its  ripe  and  glorious  treasures  on  the  head  of  the 
gardener,  still  goodly  and  golden  fruit  is  to  be  gathered  on 
the  most  favored  and  sunny  branches ;  the  quantity  is  small 
in  comparison  with  what  remains  green  and  acid,  but  there 
is  enough  to  repay  the  labor  of  him  who  is  willing  to  ascend 
to  cull  it;  the  time  of  the  grand  and  general  harvesting 
is  approaching,  perhaps  it  will  please  the  Almighty  to 
hasten  it." 

On  his  return  to  Spain  he  wrote  from  Seville:  "Know 
then,  that  the  way  to  Madrid  is  beset  with  more  perils  than 
harrassed  Christian  in  his  route  to  the  Eternal  Kingdom. 
Almost  all  communication  is  at  an  end  .  and  the  reason 


13 


is  that  the  rural  portion  of  Spain,  especially  this  part, 
in  a  state  of  complete  disorganization  and  blackest  horror, 
The  three  fiends,  famine,  plunder  and  murder,  are  playing 
their  ghastly  revels  unchecked;  bands  of  miscreants  .  .  . 
are  prowling  about  in  every  direction  and  woe  to  those 
whom  they  meet.  A  few  days  since  they  intercepted  an 
unfortunate  courier,  and  after  scooping  out  his  eyes  put 
him  to  death  with  most  painful  tortures  .  .  .  Moreover  the 
peasantry  .  .  .  seize  in  rage  and  desperation  on  every  booty 
which  comes  within  their  reach."  After  receiving  this 
highly-colored  picture,  the  Committee  in  London  were  fully 
prepared  to  hear  that  their  fearless  agent  had  met  with 
the  fate  of  Marsysas,  and  his  next  letter  must  therefore 
have  seemed  like  an  anticlimax.  It  begins:  "I  am  just 
arrived  at  Madrid  in  safety.  It  has  pleased  the  Lord  to 
protect  me  through  the  perils  of  a  most  dismal  journey. 
After  the  above  preliminary  it  was  hardly  fair  to  have  had1 
no  adventure  whatever.  Indeed,  all  we  learn  of  interest,  is 
that  he  reached  Aranjuez  half-frozen,  and  got  into  the 
home  of  an  Englishman  ''where  he  swallowed  nearly  two 
bottles  of  brandy."  But  realizing  the  shock  that  would 
run  through  the  Committee  after  such  a  confession  of 
potential  capacity,  Borrow  adds  to  assuage  matters:  "it 
affected  me  no  more  than  warm  water;  ...  if  my  letter 
be  somewhat  incoherent,  mind  it  not  —  the  cold  has  still  the 
mastery  of  me." 

Having  now  begun  printing  the  Testaments,  he  mused 
on  a  plan  to  dispose  of  the  volumes  :  *  '  As  soon  as  the  work 
is  printed  and  bound,  I  will  ride  forth  from  Madrid  into 
the  wildest  parts  of  Spain,  where  the  Word  is  most  wanted 
and  where  it  seems  next  to  an  impossibility  to  introduce  it 
...  I  will  take  with  me  twelve  hundred  copies  which  I 
will  engage  to  dispose  of  for  little  or  much  to  the  wild 
people  of  the  wild  regions  which  I  intend  to  visit."  Thus 
the  melodramatic  entrance  into  Portugal  was  to  be  repeated, 
and  Testaments  were  to  be  gently  dropped  in  the  favorite 
walks  of  the  wild  people  of  the  Asturias  and  Galicia.  Not 


14 


a  ripple  of  laughter  stirred  the  Committee  on  hearing  of 
this  plan,  the  Secretary  merely  replying :  ' '  On  hearing  your 
plans  a  general  and  simultaneous  question  was  asked.  Can 
the  people  in  these  wilds  read?  ...  Is  there  no  middle 
sort  of  course?  Can  you  not  establish  a  depot  in  some 
principal  place,  and  thence  make  excursions  of  two  or  three 
days  at  a  time,  instead  of  devoting  yourself  wholly  to  the 
wild  people?"  To  this  Borrow  replied,  softening  the  ter- 
rors of  his  project  with  a  pastoral  note :  "I  did  not  intend 
to  devote  myself  entirely  to  the  wild  people,  but  to  visit 
the  villages  and  towns  as  well  as  the  remote  and  secluded 
glens."  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Borrow  was  again  drawing 
completely  on  his  imagination.  The  experiences  of  Richard 
Ford,  who  is  always  an  excellent  corrective  lens  for  Sorrow's 
distorted  point  of  view,  show  that  the  Asturias  and  Galicia 
at  that  time  were  what  the  present  writer  has  found  them 
today — peaceful  abodes  inhabited  by  a  backward,  close- 
mouthed,  mild,  thrifty,  overworked  race.  The  skull  of 
the  Galician  is  perhaps  a  little  thick,  and  the  worst  that 
can  or  could  then  be  said  of  him  is  that  his  thriftiness  is 
so  akin  to  miserliness  as  to  have  become  proverbial  in  Spain, 
that  his  backwardness  has  kept  him  bound  too  closely  to  the 
soil ;  hence  his  wildest  occupation  has  been  the  cultivation 
of  the  potato,  of  corn,  of  barley  and  the  vine.  His  brain 
is  somewhat  affected  by  the  atmosphere  of  his  smoke-filled 
hut  which  quite  generally  has  no  chimney,  and  a  wild 
Galician  who  can  read  is  as  rare  as  one  inclined  to  spend 
a  copper  of  what  he  has  earned  by  the  sweat  of  his  brow. 
To  sell  him  Testaments  would  therefore  be,  according  to  a 
Spanish  saying,  as  futile  an  undertaking  as  looking  for 
five  legs  on  a  cat.  But  the  scheme  seemed  magnificent  to 
Borrow  and  he  accordingly  made  his  preparations  for  the 
operatic  venture.  His  first  step  was  to  purchase  "a  black 
Andalusian  stallion  of  great  size  and  strength"  worthy  of 
'the  passion  which  he  had  always  had  for  the  equine  race,' 
and  well-suited  to  the  regions  of  his  prospective  campaign, 
for  he  was  "unbroke,  savage,  and  furious."  Yet  he,  like  the 


wild  people  to  whom  he  was  bound,  was  about  to  see  a 
great  light,  for  "a  cargo  of  Bibles  which  I  hope  shortly 
to  put  on  his  back  will,  I  have  no  doubt,  thoroughly  tame 
him,  especially  when  laboring  up  the  flinty  hills  of  the  north 
of  Spain. ' '  Having  procured  his  Rocinante,  our  evangelical 
Don  Quixote  had  to  have  a  squire,  and  one  worthy  of  the 
cause.  This  is  the  first  one:  "I  have  a  servant,  a  person 
who  has  been  a  soldier  for  fifteen  years,  who  will  go  with 
me  for  the  purpose  of  attending  to  the  horses  and  otherwise 
assisting  me  in  my  labors.  His  conduct  on  the  journey  is 
the  only  thing  to  which  I  look  forward  with  uneasiness; 
for  though  he  has  some  good  points,  yet  in  many  respects 
a  more  atrocious  fellow  never  existed.  He  is  inordinately 
given  to  drink,  and  of  so  quarrelsome  a  disposition  that  he 
is  almost  constantly  involved  in  some  broil.  Like  most  of 
his  countrymen,  he  carries  an  exceedingly  long  knife  which 
he  frequently  unsheathes  and  brandishes  in  the  face  of  those 
who  are  unfortunate  enough  to  awaken  his  choler.  It  is 
only  a  few  days  since  that  I  rescued  the  maid-servant  of 
the  house  from  his  grasp,  whom  otherwise  he  would  un- 
doubtedly have  killed,  and  all  because  she  too  much  burnt 
a  red  herring  which  he  had  given  her  to  cook  ...  He  is 
very  honest,  a  virtue  which  is  rarely  to  be  found  in  a 
Spanish  servant,  and  I  have  no  fear  of  his  running  away 
with  the  horses  during  the  journey,  after  having  perhaps 
knocked  me  on  the  head  in  some  lone  posada."  This 
servant's  tenure  of  office  was  very  short;  presumably,  his 
inordinate  love  of  drink  did  not  have  merely  the  effect  of 
warm  water,  and  another  servant  had  'to  be  found,  this 
time  a  Greek  who  spoke  French.  But  before  knight  and 
squire  could  ride  forth,  the  master  was  taken  ill  and  had 
to  resort  to  the  "desperate  experiment  of  calling  in  a  native 
barber."  We  now  have  the  picture  of  the  Society's  agent 
relieved  of  sixteen  ounces  of  Protestant  blood  by  a  horrible 
Papist  who  was  naturally  skilled  in  blood-letting.  Never- 
theless, the  start  could  at  last  be  made,  Borrow  setting  out 
with  only  his  servant  and  their  animals,  traversing  for  four 


16 


days  regions  reported  to  swarm  with  banditti,  cut-throats, 
wild  beasts  and  other  natives  who.  as  usual,  neglected  to 
put  in  an  appearance.  In  the  large  cities  through  which 
Borrow  passed  he  prepared  an  advertisement  of  the  work 
which  was  the  sole  guide  to  salvation,  explaining  incident- 
ally the  pecuniary  sacrifices  made  by  the  Society  in  its 
efforts  to  dispel  darkness.  A  small  candle  was  lighted,  for 
Borrow  had  the  pleasure  "of  seeing  three  New  Testaments 
despatched  in  less  than  a  quarter  of  an  hour  that  he 
remained  in  the  shop. ' '  To  follow  him  in  his  entire  journey 
before  his  return  to  Madrid  would  lead  us  too  far  afield; 
much  of  it  may  be  found  in  The  Bible  in  Spain,  wherefore 
the  gist  of  his  letters  must  be  summed  up  briefly. 

He  now  passed  in  his  Odyssey  through  regions  "where 
literature  of  every  description  was  at  its  lowest  ebb/'  and 
after  leaving  inhospitable  Valladolid  on  the  right  he  con- 
tinued through  desolate  plains  covered  with  scantily-sown 
but  smiling  barley,  the  sustenance  of  an  "ignorant  and 
brutal"  people,  through  fever-stricken  Leon,  filled  with 
"blinded  followers  of  the  old  Papal  Church,"  and  thence 
to  rock-bound  Astorga  where  he  took  up  his  abode  with 
the  pigs  and  vermin.  But  he  returned  God  thanks  and 
glory,  and  would  not  have  exchanged  that  situation  for  a 
throne.  At  Corunna  he  made  a  depot  of  five  hundred  Test- 
aments, and  then  proceeded  to  hope  for  the  dawning  of 
better  and  more  enlightened  times. 

Because  of  his  histrionic  temperament,  his  highly  color- 
istic  style,  his  attitude  toward  Nature,  Borrow  may  be  con- 
sidered an  important  figure  of  English  Romanticism.  This 
is  particularly  evident  in  this  portion  of  his  letters.  In 
many  of  his  traits  he  is  wholly  Byronic ;  he  too  could  have 
repeated,  "I  have  not  loved  the  world,  nor  the  world  me." 
In  his  correspondence  as  in  The  Bible  in  Spain  he  stands 
isolated,  and  his  brilliant  personality  dwarfs  everything  else. 
His  sympathies  are  far  greater  for  Nature  than  for  his 
fellowmen.  His  feeling  for  the  peculiar  charms  of  the 
landscape  dictated  some  of  the  finest  pages  which  he  ever 


17 


penned  and  which  are  worthy  to  live  with  the  best  of  the 
early  Victorian  age.  The  following  passage,  describing  a 
picturesque  landscape  in  northwestern  Spain,  may  serve  as 
an  example.  "Perhaps  the  whole  world  might  be  searched 
in  vain  for  a  spot  whose  natural  charms  could  rival  those 
of  this  plain  or  valley  of  Bembibre,  with  its  walls  of  mighty 
mountains,  its  spreading  chestnut-trees,  and  its  groves  of 
oaks  and  willows  which  clothe  the  banks  of  its  stream,  a 
tributary  to  the  Minho.  True  it  is  that  when  I  passed 
through  it  the  candle  of  Heaven  was  shining  in  full 
splendor,  and  everything  lighted  by  its  rays  looked  gay, 
glad  and  blessed.  Whether  it  would  have  filled  me  with 
the  same  feelings  of  admiration  if  viewed  beneath  another 
sky  I  will  not  pretend  to  determine,  -but  it  certainly  pos- 
sesses advantages  which  at  no  time  could  fail  to  delight; 
for  it  exhibited  all  the  peaceful  beauties  of  an  English 
landscape  blended  with  something  wild  and  grand,  and  I 
thought  within  myself  that  he  must  be  a  restless,  dissatisfied 
man  who,  born  amongst  these  scenes,  could  wish  to  quit 
them.  At  the  time  I  would  have  desired  no  better  fate  than 
that  of  a  shepherd  on  the  prairies  or  a  hunter  on  the  hills 
of  Bembibre. ' '  Contrast  now  the  following  sudden  change : 
'  *  The  aspect  of  Heaven  had  blackened ;  clouds  were  rolling 
rapidly  from  the  west  over  the  mountains,  and  a  cold  wind 
was  moaning  dismally.  *  There  is  a  storm  travelling  through 
the  air,'  said  a  peasant  whom  we  overtook  mounted  on  a 
wretched  mule  .  .  .  He  had  scarce  spoken  when  a  light 
so  vivid  and  dazzling  that  it  seemed  the  whole  lustre  of  the 
fiery  element  was  concentrated  therein  broke  around  us, 
filling  the  whole  atmosphere,  and  covering  rock,  tree  and 
mountain  with  a  glare  indescribable  .  .  .  The  lightening 
was  followed  by  a  peal  almost  as  terrible,  but  distant,  for 
it  sounded  hollow  and  deep ;  the  hills,  however,  caught  up 
its  voice,  seemingly  pitching  it  along  their  summits,  till  it 
was  lost  in  interminable  space  .  .  .  *A  hundred  families 
are  weeping  where  that  bolt  fell,'  said  the  peasant.  .  .  . 
'were  the  friars  still  in  their  nest  above  there,  I  should  say 


18 


that  this  was  their  doing,  for  they  are  the  cause  of  all  the 
miseries  of  the  land.'  ! 

Borrow  returned  through  the  far  north  of  Spain  and 
finally  reached  Oviedo  safely  after  an  exceedingly  arduous 
journey,  chiefly  on  foot.    He  sat  down  to  begin  an  account 
to  the  Society,  and  had  hardly  begun  a  stirring  report  on 
the  feverish  anxiety  of  the  people  about  him,  when  he 
experienced  a  typical  "strange  adventure."     "But  I  am 
interrupted  and  I  lay  down  my  pen."     Having  properly 
mystified  the  reader  he  continues :  "  I  am  in  a  very  large, 
scantily-furnished  and  remote  room  of  an  ancient  posada, 
formerly  a  palace  of  the  Counts  of  Santa  Cruz.    It  is  past 
ten  at  night  and  the  rain  is  descending  in  torrents.    I  ceased 
writing  on  hearing  numerous  footsteps  ascending  the  creak- 
ing stairs  which  lead  to  my  apartment — the  door  was  flung 
open,  and  in  walked  nine  men  of  tall  stature,  marshalled 
by  a  little  hunch-backed  personage.    They  were  all  muffled 
in  the  long  cloaks  of  Spain,  but  I  instantly  knew  by  their 
demeanor  that  they  were  caballeros,  or  gentlemen.     They 
placed  themselves  in  a  rank  before  the  table  where  I  was 
sitting;  suddenly  and  simultaneously  they  all  flung  back 
their  cloaks,  and  I  perceived  that  everyone  bore  a  book  in 
his  hand,  a  book  which  I  knew  full  well.    After  a  pause, 
which  I  was  unable  to  break,  for  I  sat  lost  in  astonishment 
and  almost  conceived  myself  to  be  visited  by  apparitions, 
the  hunch-back  advancing  somewhat  before  the  rest  said  in 
soft,  silvery  tones :  '  Senor  Cavalier,  was  it  you  who  brought 
this  book  to  the  Asturias  ? '    I  now  supposed  that  they  were 
the  civil  authorities  of  the  place  come  to  take  me  into 
custody,  and  rising  from  my  seat  I  exclaimed :  '  It  certainly 
was  I,  and  it  is  my  glory  to  have  done  so.    The  book  is  the 
New  Testament  of  God ;  I  wish  it  was  in  my  power  to  bring 
a  million.'    'I  heartily  wish  so  too,'  said  the  little  person 
with  a  sigh  .  .  .  After  about  half-an-hour  's  conversation,  he 
suddenly  said  in  the  English  language,  'Good-night,  sir,' 
wrapped  his  cloak  around  him,  and  walked  out  as  he  had 
come.    'His  companions,  who  had  hitherto  not  uttered  a 


19 


word,  all  repeated,  *  Good-night,  sir,'  and  adjusting  their 
cloaks,  followed  him. ' '  There  were  evidently  some  wags  in 
Oviedo  in  those  days. 

Borrow  had  now  no  more  Testaments  to  despatch,  and 
so  set  out  again  for  Madrid,  where  he  arrived  safely  after 
hairbreadth  escapes  from  incredible  imaginary  dangers.  At 
the  Capital  he  found  a  state  of  affairs  anything  but  pros- 
perous for  the  sale  of  Testaments.  There  were  many  rea- 
sons why  people  did  not  care  to  buy,  one  of  them  perhaps 
being  that  they  had  no  money.  Our  agent  thus  felt  obliged 
to  enter  the  arena  personally  and  opened  a  shop.  At  the 
same  time  "a  violent  and  furious  letter  against  the  Bible 
Society"  demanded  a  reply,  and  brought  forth  a  "warm 
and  fiery"  epistle  because  "tameness  and  gentleness  are  of 
little  avail  when  surrounded  by  the  vassal  slaves  of  bloody 
Rome."  Advertisements  blue,  yellow  and  crimson  were 
also  printed  and  posted  along  the  streets  "causing  a  great 
sensation."  Yet  it  never  occurred  to  Borrow  that  all  this 
noisy  publicity  was  contrary  to  the  promise  of  reserve  and 
secrecy  he  gave  the  Spanish  Minister  when  he  received 
permission  to  print  the  Testaments.  Nor  can  there  be  any 
doubt  but  that  quiet  selling  would  have  continued  long 
and  uninterrupted.  But  the  operatic  method  was  the  only 
one  compatible  with  Borrow 's  temperament. 

His  next  report  stated  "the  priests  and  bigots  are  teem- 
ing with  malice  and  fury"  and  "there  is  no  attempt  how- 
ever atrocious  which  may  not  be  expected  from  such  people, 
and  were  it  right  and  seemly  for  me,  the  most  insignificant 
of  worms,  to  make  such  a  comparison,  I  would  say  that, 
like  Paul  at  Ephesus,  I  am  fighting  with  wild  beasts." 
At  last  the  expected  happened,  and  the  priests  "swooped" 
upon  the  Bible  shop,  warnings  being  sent  to  him  to  erase 
from  his  window  the  words  "Despatch  of  the  British  and 
Foreign  Bible  Society."  This  he  refused  to  do  since  it 
was  his  "grand  object"  to  attract  attention  by  them.  In 
defense  of  his  cause  he  now  memorialized  the  Prime  Min- 
ister, ' '  a  weak,  timid,  priest-ridden  man. ' '  The  letter  which 


he  claims  to  have  written  to  that  Statesman  he  forwarded 
in  "  translation "  to  the  Society,  a  translation  which  is 
plainly  only  a  version  of  what  Borrow  imagined  he  had 
written.  It  has  all  the  ear-marks  of  an  idiomatic  English 
piece  of  prose  in  an  exaggerated  Borrovian  style,  impos- 
sible of  being  rendered  in  Spanish.  For  example,  if  we 
were  to  trust  the  exact  wording  given,  Borrow  wrote  to 
the  Prime  Minister  of  Spain  the  following  extraordinary 
paragraph  which  would  have  landed  him  in  a  jiffy  on  the 
other  side  of  the  frontier.  "It  is  unnecessary  for  me  to 
dilate  on  the  intentions  of  the  Society  with  respect  to  Spain, 
a  country  which  perhaps  most  of  any  in  the  world  is  in 
need  of  the  assistance  of  the  Christian  philanthropist,  as 
it  is  overspread  with  the  thickest  gloom  of  heathenish  ignor- 
ance, beneath  which  the  fiends  and  the  demons  of  the  abyss 
seem  to  be  holding  their  ghastly  revels ;  a  country  in  which 
all  sense  of  right  and  wrong  is  forgotten,  and  where  every 
man's  hand  is  turned  against  his  fellow  to  destroy  or  injure 
him,  where  the  name  of  Jesus  is  scarcely  ever  mentioned 
but  in  blasphemy,  and  his  precepts  are  almost  utterly  un- 
known. In  this  unhappy  country  the  few  who  are  enlight- 
ened are  too  much  occupied  in  the  pursuit  of  lucre,  ambition 
or  ungodly  revenge  to  entertain  a  desire  or  thought  of 
bettering  the  moral  state  of  their  countrymen.  But  it  has 
pleased  the  Lord  to  raise  up  in  foreign  lands  individuals 
differently  situated  and  disposed,  whose  hearts  bleed  for 
their  brethren  in  Spain.  It  is  their  belief  that  ignorance  of 
God's  word  is  the  sole  cause  of  these  horrors,  and  to 
dispel  that  ignorance  they  have  printed  the  Gospel  in  Spain 
which  they  dispose  of  at  a  price  within  the  power  of  the 
poorest  to  command.  Vain  men  would  fain  persuade  them- 
selves and  others  that  the  Society  entertains  other  motives, 
by  which  uncharitableness  they  prove  that  they  themselves 
are  neither  Christians,  nor  acquainted  with  the  spirit  of 
Christianity.  But  let  the  most  fearful  and  dubious  reassure 
themselves  with  the  thought,  that  should  the  Bible  Society 
foster  the  very  worst  intentions,  it  would  baffle  their  power, 


21 

if  even  assisted  by  Satanic  agency,  to  render  Spain  worse 
than  it  at  present  is." 

It  is  an  ill  wind  which  blows  no  one  any  good,  and  ' 
being  particularly  bad  in  Madrid  after  all  these  activities, 
it  at  last  carried  Borrow  into  jail.  Yet  considering  the 
cause  for  which  he  was  laboring  he  felt  that  he  had  now 
conferred  upon  him  the  highest  of  mortal  honors.  Besides, 
it  was  pleasant  to  be  under  lock  and  key  long  enough  to 
become  an  international  question;  henceforth  he  would  be 
classed  with  the  world's  greatest  martyrs.  But  his  im- 
prisonment was  not  only  made  very  comfortable,  it  was 
also  of  short  duration  through  the  kind  intervention  of  the 
Lord,  and  the  British  Ambassador,  and  Borrow  was  again 
able  to  make  plans  for  further  disseminating  the  Word 
among  some  neighboring  wild  people.  He  therefore  rode 
around  in  various  directions  through  the  hottest  part  of 
Spain  with  the  thermometer  at  115°  F.,  while  the  atmos- 
phere resembled  "the  flickering  glow  about  the  mouth  of 
an  oven."  Others  were  enlisted  in  the  cause,  and  took  the 
field  provided  with  Testaments,  among  them  the  host  of 
the  inn  in  which  Borrow  was  staying.  Of  the  character  of 
this  man  we  know  nothing,  but  Borrow  states:  "I  had 
scarcely  written  the  above  lines  when  I  heard  the  voice  of 
the  donkey  in  the  courtyard,  and  going  out  I  found  my 
host  returned."  This  is  hardly  fair  to  mine  host,  but 
throws  some  light  on  the  twists  of  Borrow 's  mind.  Some 
success  is  recorded  on  this  journey.  For  instance,  eight  poor 
harvestmen,  who  appeared  to  have  come  to  refresh  them- 
selves at  the  door  of  a  wine-shop  were  instead  induced  to 
partake  of  the  water  of  life  at  a  much  smaller  price.  We 
are  further  assured  that  the  arrival  of  the  New  Testament 
"spread  like  wildfire  through  the  villages"  of  benighted 
New  Castile.  Even  Borrow 's  daily  ablutions  could  not  be 
carried  on  without  interruption.  "Last  night."  he  says, 
"as  I  was  bathing  myself  and  my  horse  in  the  Tagus,  a 
knot  of  people  gathered  on  the  bank,  crying:  'Come  out  of 
the  water,  Englishman,  and  give  us  books ;  we  have  got  our 


22 


money  in  our  hands.'  '  It  was  a  foregone  conclusion  that 
being  in  puribus,  Borrow  should  find  himself  without  Testa- 
ments on  his  person.  But  his  servant,  at  a  short  distance, 
was  presumably  not  in  the  habit  of  going  into  the  water, 
for  he  held  up  an  every-ready  copy  over  which  a  scuffle 
ensued,  and  is  was  torn  from  his  hands — at  a  price  adapted 
to  the  humble  means  of  the  purchaser. 

Having  now  sold  about  nine  hundred  copies  to  the  ' '  sun- 
blackened  peasantry  of  Castile,"  he  returned  to  Madrid 
"trusting  in  the  Lord  and  defying  Satan."  There  he 
learned  that  some  factious  priests  "publicly  cursed  him  in 
the  church  more  than  once,"  but  as  no  ill  seemed  to  come 
from  it,  we  may  well  believe  that  the  event  gave  him  little 
concern.  He  was  proud  of  the  success  attained,  and  re- 
ported that  any  failure  to  spread  the  Word  was  due  to 
the  fact  that  "the  inhabitants  were  too  much  occupied 
with  dancing  and  other  amusements  to  entertain  any  serious 
thoughts." 

Borrow  now  entered  on  the  last  phase  of  his  efforts  in 
behalf  of  the  Bible  Society.  He  made  all  preparations  at 
Madrid,  securing  another  servant  and  the  "largest  and 
most  useful  horse"  to  be  obtained.  He  then  wrote  to 
London  "I  have  been  very  passionate  in  prayer  during  the 
last  two  or  three  days ;  and  I  entertain  some  hope  that  the 
Lord  has  condescended  to  answer  me,  as  I  appear  to  see 
my  way  with  considerable  clearness."  His  style  was  evi- 
dently becoming  more  and  more  ' '  unusual, ' '  and  the  London 
Secretary  felt  at  last  obliged  to  urge  Mr.  Borrow  "to  keep 
to  plain  language  for  plain  people. ' '  For  his  last  campaign 
he  tried  a  new  system.  He  disguised  himself  in  the  costume 
of  the  peasants  of  Old  Castile,  and  thereafter  followed  what 
was  perhaps  his  most  striking  conquest.  "On  nearing  the 
village  I  met  a  genteel-looking  young  woman  leading  a  little 
boy  by  the  hand.  As  I  was  about  to  pass  her  with  the 
customary  salutation  she  stopped,  and  after  looking  at  me 
for  a  moment  she  said:  'Uncle,  what  is  that  you  have  on 
your  borricof  Is  it  soap?'  I  replied,  'Yes,  it  is  soap  to 


23 


wash  souls  clean/  '  Naturally,  not  understanding  the 
language  of  the  Bible  Society,  she  welcomed  his  expla- 
nation that  he  carried  "cheap  and  godly  books  for  sale.'* 
There  being  little  or  no  money  in  those  parts,  the  poor 
woman  at  first  declined  to  buy;  but  when  Borrow  had 
passed  on,  the  lad  came  running  behind  shouting  out  of 
breath,  "Stop,  uncle,  the  book,  the  book,"  and  after  hand- 
ing over  three  reals  in  copper  he  (that  is,  this  little  boy  who 
was  being  led  by  the  hand)  seized  the  Testament  and 
1 1  flourished  the  book  over  his  head  with  great  glee. ' ' 

As  was  to  be  surmised,  the  disguise  of  the  agent  did 
not  meet  with  the  unqualified  approval  of  the  gentlemen 
at  home ;  his  peasant 's  costume  seemed  to  ruffle  the  dignity 
of  the  committee.  Having  first  smiled,  they  began  to 
' '  grow  grave, ' '  and  the  first  levity  was  promptly  succeeded 
by  sober  second  thoughts.  The  Committee  might  "cheer- 
fully employ  a  peasant,  but  they  were  doubtful  whether 
it  became  them  to  have  the  likeness  of  one  going  about 
in  their  name.  A  word  to  the  wise,  they  say,  is  enough." 
In  the  meantime  Borrow  sold  a  number  of  Testaments  at 
the  Capital,  in  some  instances  to  "every  individual  in  the 
house,  man  and  child,  manservant  and  maidservant." 
His  optimism  consequently  rose  again  and  he  wrote  to  the 
Committee:  "There  was  a  time,  as  you  are  well  aware, 
I  was  in  the  habit  of  saying,  '  Dark  Madrid, '  an  expression 
which  I  thank  God  I  may  now  drop;  for  can  that  city 
justly  be  called  dark  in  which  thirteen  hundred  Testaments, 
at  least,  are  in  circulation  and  in  daily  use?"  Borrow 
therefore  felt  that  his  task  was  well-nigh  done  and  he 
himself  a  "useless  vessel."  Indeed,  he  had  sold  "as  many 
Testaments  as  Madrid  would  bear  for  a  time, ' '  and  he  was 
afraid  of  "bringing  the  book  into  contempt  by  making  it 
too  common."  He  therefore  determined  to  campaign  once 
more  in  Andalusia,  but  being  "exceedingly  superstitious," 
and  having  dreamed  that  he  was  "being  hacked  with  long, 
ugly  knives  by  robbers  in  a  desolate  road,"  discretion 
seemed  the  better  part  of  valor,  and  the  beaten  highway 


24 


was  chosen  instead  of  his  favorite  wild  places.  The  good 
men  to  whom  Borrow 's  letters  were  addressed  were  once 
more  displeased  with  their  tone.  No  doubt  it  was  the 
indiscriminate  mixture  of  pious  and  ungodly  sentiments 
which  shocked  them.  Sorrow's  confession  of  superstitious- 
ness  "when  read  aloud  in  a  large  committee"  sounded  very 
odd,  don't  you  know,  while  the  tone  of  his  letter  "savoured 
a  little  of  the  praise  of  a  personage  called  number  one." 
Moreover,  Borrow  had  said  that  during  his  perilous  jour- 
ney (in  which  nothing  happened),  "his  usual  wonderful 
good  fortune"  had  accompanied  him.  "This,"  says  the 
Bible  Secretary,  "is  a  mode  of  speaking  to  which  we  are 
not  well  accustomed — it  savours,  some  of  our  friends  would 
say,  a  little  of  the  profane."  In  reply  Borrow  humbly 
expressed  regret  that  he  had  thus  erred  and  promised  to 
mend,  saying  that  he  had  already  prayed  for  assistance 
to  do  so.  No  more  expressions  "savouring  of  pagan  times" 
would  be  used ;  but  it  is  hard  for  the  leopard  to  change  his 
spots  and  he  relapsed  into  his  epistolary  sins  of  omission 
and  commission  to  the  end. 

The  small  store  of  Testaments  which  remained  was  now 
seized  and  the  malicious  act  reported  thus:  "It  was  Sun- 
day when  the  seizure  was  made,  and  I  happened  to  be 
reading  the  Liturgy. ' '  Indeed,  one  of  the  constables,  being 
of  an  observant  turn  of  mind,  remarked  on  the  "different 
manner  in  which  the  Protestants  and  Catholics  keep  the 
Sabbath,  the  former  being  in  their  homes  reading  good 
books  (one  of  them  being  a  personage  called  number  one) 
and  the  latter  abroad  in  the  bullring,  seeing  the  wild  bulls 
tearing  out  the  gory  bowels  of  the  poor  horses."  After 
giving  vent  to  these  pious  sentiments,  we  may  imagine 
the  constable  hurrying  away  so  as  to  be  in  time  for  his 
favorite  spectacle. 

Although  Borrow 's  usefulness  in  Spain  had  now  come 
to  an  end,  he  was  anxious  to  get  in  a  few  last  blows  for 
the  cause.  By  means  of  the  utmost  secrecy  he  was  still 
able  to  give  "the  blessed  books  considerable  circulation." 


25 


But  the  ruffians  who  beset  him  everywhere  now  laid  hand 
upon  him  for  the  last  time,  and  "he  was  led  or  rather 
dragged  to  jail."  His  sojourn  in  the  prison  of  Seville  was 
not  prolonged,  more  is  the  pity,  as  he  might  well  have  used 
his  leisure  time  in  making  a  careful  and  complete  record 
of  the  extensive  rogue's  vocabulary  for  which  that  jail  has 
always  been  famous,  thus  carrying  out  an  undertaking  for 
which  he  was  qualified  by  his  tastes  and  gifts.  After  his 
release  he  hurried  to  Madrid  to  demand  redress  of  the 
Spanish  Government  for  the  various  outrages  he  had  been 
subjected  to  during  his  final  efforts. 

The  door  being  now  closed  in  Spain  to  any  further 
activities  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society,  its 
agent  was  definitely  recalled.  We  would  like  to  believe 
Sorrow's  own  statement  in  spite  of  his  many  misrepre- 
sentations of  the  truth,  that  the  years  of  his  sojourn  in 
the  Spanish  Peninsula  were  among  the  happiest  of  his  life. 
Indeed,  it  would  but  seem  reasonable  to  expect  that  after 
so  many  years  of  wandering  through  Spain  he  should  have 
carried  away  some  faithful  mental  images  as  well  as  a 
few  trustworthy  opinions  to  the  effect  that,  although  the 
Spanish  Government  has  been  very  generally  bad,  the 
people  have  something  in  them  that  is  commendable  or 
good ;  or  that  the  Church  with  all  her  shortcomings  is  not 
wholly  bloody,  bigoted,  satanic  and  the  rest,  since  it  was 
at  least  suited  to  the  temper  of  the  Spanish  people.  No 
such  objective  attitude  could  have  been  expected  from 
Borrow 's  peculiar  temperament.  On  his  return  to  Eng- 
land, filled  with  bitter  feelings  against  Spain,  he  stal 
that  "the  Spaniard  has  no  conception  that  other  spring 
of  action  exist  than  interest  or  villainy";  that  among  the 
people  of  the  Peninsula  he  had  met  "only  three  who  were 
not  scoundrels,  thieves  or  assassins."  And  a  few  yeai 
later  he  was  asked  to  review  Richard  Ford's  Handbook 
on  Spain,  a  duty  he  ought  to  have  undertaken  cheerfully 
inasmuch  as  Ford  had  in  his  usual  kindly  spirit  reviewed 
The  BMe  in  Spain,  stinting  neither  praise  of  the  book  nor 


26 

admiration  of  its  author.  Borrow,  on  the  other  hand,  sat 
down  in  a  temper  and  without  mentioning  the  work  of  Ford 
at  all  penned  a  strangely  unreasonable  arraignment  of  the 
Spanish  Peninsula  and  of  every  inhabitant,  all  of  which 
could  certainly  not  have  been  calculated  to  make  popular 
a  book  purporting  to  be  a  guide  through  that  country. 
Was  he  filled  with  jealousy  of  Ford's  splendid  work?  At 
all  events,  his  attitude  showed  a  fanatical  and  small  spirit. 
The  article  was  submitted  to  Lockhardt,  the  editor  of  the 
Quarterly  Review,  who  expressed  a  wish  to  add  a  few 
extracts  from  the  Handbook  so  as  to  give  some  idea  of 
what  the  review  pretended  to  be  reviewing.  This  Borrow 
curtly  refused  to  allow,  as  it  was  tampering  with  his  paper, 
and  it  was  therefore  rejected.  If  he  had  had  any  sense  of 
proportion  or  sweet  reasonableness  in  his  nature  he  would 
have  appreciated  a  certain  old  Spanish  legend.  This  tells 
us  that  once  upon  a  time  in  the  good  old  days  a  certain 
King  of  Spain  was  walking  in  his  gardens  and  behold, — 
Santiago,  Patron  Saint  of  Spain,  suddenly  stood  before 
him.  Now  the  countenance  of  the  King  seemed  troubled, 
and  the  Saint,  knowing  that  he  had  at  heart  the  good  of 
the  Spanish  people,  asked  him  to  express  the  wishes  dearest 
to  him,  and  that,  if  possible,  they  would  be  granted. 
"Bestow  on  my  country/'  said  the  King,  "an  admirable 
climate."  "Granted,"  said  the  Saint,  "what  next?" 
"May  there  ever  be  abundant  harvests  of  the  earth's  best 
products."  "So  be  it,"  replied  Santiago.  "May  my 
country  ever  boast  valiant  sons  and  winsome  daughters." 
"That,  too,  I  grant,"  was  the  answer.  "Let  Spain  always 
be  favored  with  an  excellent  government. "  "  Never, ' '  cried 
Santiago,  "that  is  impossible;  for  if  I  were  to  grant  you 
a  regime  worthy  of  this  blessed  land,  even  the  angels  would 
abandon  heaven  to  make  their  abode  in  Spain. ' ' 


I 


OCT  24  1912 

mn  10 


JUH 

SEP 


LI>  21- 


Gaylord  Bros. 

Makers 

Syracuse,  N.  Y. 

P/U.  JAN.  21,  1908 


U.  C.  BERKELEY  LIBRARIES 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


